This year totaled 65 books. To be clear, I’m less concerned about remembering everything; I love the cross-pollination of ideas much more. I’m going for quantity and listening at ~2.5X speed. The more ideas I gather from different disciplines, the more I draw parallels from seemingly unrelated fields. This is my sweet spot.

I’ve divided up all the books I read this year by the rating scale I use for my Book Notes page. Let me know if you want any of the notes I took for a particular book, and I’ll post it and share a hyperlink.

5 Stars: Loved It (24 books)

Non-Fiction

• Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt by Arthur C. Brooks
• The Book of Mormon
• It Worked for Me: In Life and Leadership by Colin Powell
• Test Gods: Virgin Galactic and the Making of a Modern Astronaut by Nicholas Schmidle
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
• The Chancellor: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel by Kati Marton
• Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant
• Master Your Time, Master Your Life: The Breakthrough System to Get More Results, Faster, in Every Area of Your Life by Brian Tracy
• Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters by Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger
• Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life by Marie Kondō
• Tough: My Journey to True Power by Terry Crews
• About Face: Odyssey Of An American Warrior by COL (ret.) David H. Hackworth
• Power Play: Tesla, Elon Musk, and the Bet of the Century by Tim Higgins
• A Sacred Oath: Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times by Mark T. Esper
• Everyday Millionaires: How Ordinary People Built Extraordinary Wealth—And How You Can Too by Chris Hogan
• The First 100 Days of Platoon Leadership Handbook: Lessons and Best Practices by U.S. Department of the Army
• Dare to Lead by Brené Brown
• My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future by Indra Nooyi
• Persuade: The 4-Step Process to Influence People and Decisions by Andres Lares
• Leadership Strategy and Tactics: Field Manual by Jocko Willink

Fiction

• Spider-Man: Blue by Jeph Loeb
• Daredevil: Yellow by Jeph Loeb
• From the Dead (Moon Knight, #1) by Warren Ellis
• Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman
  • Note: I have really enjoyed reading short stories

4 Stars: Liked It (21 books)

Non-Fiction

• The Lego Story: How a Little Toy Sparked the World’s Imagination by Jens Andersen
• The Folly and the Glory: America, Russia, and Political Warfare 1945–2020 by Tim Weiner
• The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War by Craig Whitlock
• Side Hustle: From Idea to Income in 27 Days by Chris Guillebeau
• Made in China: A Memoir of Love and Labor by Anna Qu
• The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America by Timothy Snyder
• The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion by Eliot Brown
• The Storm is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything by Mike Rothschild
• The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win by Maria Konnikova
• Joker One: A Marine Platoon’s Story of Courage, Leadership, and Brotherhood by Donovan Campbell
• Topgun: An American Story by Dan Pedersen
• Disney’s Land: Walt Disney and the Invention of the Amusement Park That Changed the World by Richard Snow
• Black Ops: The Life of a CIA Shadow Warrior by Ric Prado
• The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again by Catherine Price
• Every Good Endeavor: Connecting Your Work to God’s Plan for the World by Timothy J. Keller
• Amazon Unbound: Jeff Bezos and the Invention of a Global Empire by Brad Stone

Fiction

• Shadowland by Andy Diggle
• Batman: Death by Design by Chip Kidd
• D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths by Ingri d’Aulaire
  • Note: I’m not sure if I should capture myths as fiction or non-fiction
• Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, vol. 1: Aphra by Kieron Gillen
• Iron Man, Vol. 5: Rings of the Mandarin by Kieron Gillen

3 Stars: It Was Okay (14 books)

Non-Fiction

• Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys by Joe Coulombe
• Is This Anything? by Jerry Seinfeld
• Clarity in Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the CIA by Marc E. Polymeropoulos
• The Hundred-Year Marathon: China’s Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower by Michael Pillsbury
• Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by Anderson Cooper
• How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age by Dale Carnegie
• The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E. Gerber
• There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century by Fiona Hill
• The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman
• The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read by Philippa Perry
• First SEALs: The Untold Story of the Forging of America’s Most Elite Unit by Patrick K. O’Donnell
• The Twelve Monotasks: Do One Thing at a Time to Do Everything Better by Thatcher Wine

Fiction

• Freedom™ (Daemon #2) by Daniel Suarez
• The Lone Drow (Forgotten Realms: Hunter’s Blades, #2; Legend of Drizzt, #15) by R.A. Salvatore

2 Stars: Disliked It (5 books)

Non-Fiction

• Leadership in War: Essential Lessons from Those Who Made History by Andrew Roberts
• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson

Fiction

• The Thousand Orcs (Forgotten Realms: Hunter’s Blades, #1; Legend of Drizzt, #14) by R.A. Salvatore
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values (Phaedrus, #1) by Robert M. Pirsig
• Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director’s Cut by Jhonen Vásquez

1 Star: Hated It (1 book)

Non-Fiction

• N/A

Fiction

• Infinity (Avengers, #4) by Jonathan Hickman

Put On Pause or Quit

Non-Fiction

• A Hero Born (Legends of the Condor Heroes, #1) by Jin Yong
• Walden by Henry David Thoreau

Fiction

• N/A